Curry No Favors

David Byrd

David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.

It was another great weekend for food. My wife decided she wanted a shrimp curry and while that was a great idea, I like to have the flavor of several curries when eating Indian food. Therefore, I made three, Spicy Shrimp Mustard Curry, Chicken in Coconut Curry and Potatoes and Spinach Curry. Each was quite good and well worth the effort. I know only a few of you may have the necessary ingredients to make Indian food but it is worth the trip to the grocery store. The cooking is very simple and the curry flavors are fantastic. The Shrimp Mustard Curry is really a red curry with mustard seeds. I added sliced bell peppers as the vegetable. The Chicken in Coconut Curry has the surprise ingredient of corn. The sweetness of the coconut and corn go very well together. Finally, the Potatoes and Spinach Curry has the addition of yogurt at the end to make it creamy and slightly tart. I didn't make Naan so we served it with my version of Basmati Rice. Today you get two recipes, the chicken curry and the basmati rice.

Oh, Sunday's meal almost wiped out curry as the dish of the day. I made Veal Scaloppini with a wild mushroom cream sauce (flavored with tarragon and Madeira) served over fettuccini pasta. It was a real contest but the curry won by an ear (of corn). Enjoy!

Curry No Favors with Free Broadband

I have decided that I am wrong in saying that there should not be tiered broadband prices. For two reason I raise this subject again. First, the way Broadvox prices its SIP Origination and Termination services is tiered based upon usage. While the per minute call rate falls as the usage goes up, the total bill does increase. That's not wrong and does not hinder the growth of IP Communications. The second reason was to note that less than 5% of broadband users fall into the category of heavy consumers of broadband. So, if pricing were set such that at least 80% of users (the old eighty-twenty rule) were paying a relatively low fixed price for usage and only 20% were tiered and paying more, than the overall penetration of broadband should not be effected. This does require healthy competition to keep prices at a level where those that want broadband can afford to purchase a basic service.

In the case of Broadvox's SIP oriented product offerings, we have quite a few competitors. Therefore, we have to charge an attractive price in order to secure and keep business. In the case of cable companies and the ubiquitous TDM phone companies, that is not always the case. The high cost of building out infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, prevents robust competition. Therefore, some type of subsidy and regulation is needed or we go back to the previously heavy-handed monopolistic practices of the last century. At last, with the current FCC, the debate has begun anew over Special Access rates, Universal Service reform, and deployment versus adoption rates.

So, for those of you that thought I was off my rocker, I support limited and targeted tiered pricing of broadband. For those of you that want a voice supporting the continued expansion of broadband infrastructure and an increase in the adoption rate, I'm there for you also.